How to Write a Book Review and Rid the World of Crappy Writers

As an indie publisher and author, I put AYANNA on various distribution channels for free. The hope is that you will enjoy the work and want to read more of my tales. Also, feedback is needed so writers like me will know whether or not it is worth it to keep writing in the same series. Believe it or not, writing hundreds of pages for your enjoyment is part fun, but part a LOT of work. Also, your feedback is needed for the writers to find out what the readers like or don’t like.

Typically, less than one in a thousand free downloads will leave a review. That means that by the second or third books, an author might get a couple of reviews. That is a lot of work for such minimal feedback. If we suck, put us out of our misery.

If you do read a free book and like it well enough to finish it, I encourage you to go to the website where you got it and leave some kind of positive review. After all, it was at least good enough to finish. What kept you going? You could have been sorting your socks or rotating your tires or something.

If you didn’t finish the book, because it was just not your genre, then it would be unfair to leave a bad review, unless the book description said it was about rampaging zombies and all the protagonists did was make out. If you didn’t finish the book because there was some serious writing or publishing flaws, it could warrant a bad review, or just mark them down a star or two. Don’t go too crazy. I have never read a book which has not contained some kind of spelling mistake.

If possible, break down what you liked or didn’t like. “That character would never do that.” “That would never happen.” “That was too unbelievable.” “I couldn’t stop reading it because. . .” “This is as good as a book I paid money for because. . .” “I love that character.” “I would like to see so and so go whatever.” What did reading the book make you think about? How did it make you feel? Just don’t spoil the story for the next reader by giving out too much detail.

Another reason to leave a review is that it can be fun. Not fun in that you are killing off budding writers’ careers, but that at least on Amazon, when you leave book reviews, the reviewers are reviewed and get a rating.